Surprise! The Moth MainStage NY
Storytelling, New York Clothes, and Shopping Spree Wishes
UPCOMING ATL SHOW: I’m working out some of my new poems and stories at Eddie’s Attic on Sunday 4/13. Get your tix here: https://eddiesattic.com/event/amena-brown/.
At the end of February, I was in the California mountains on a creative team retreat. On our drive back into Los Angeles, I received a text asking if I was available to tell a story at The Moth MainStage in Harlem…in three days. I said YES as fast as I could text, which made me so thankful for smartphones because if I had been texting that on an old Nokia phone it would have taken HOURS!
Last December, I was selected as one of the local tellers for The Moth MainStage Atlanta. I’ve been telling stories on stage for many years and have told a few stories at our local The Moth Atlanta event but The Moth MainStage is different. Each teller is selected in advance and asked to prepare a 10-12 minute story versus the five minute story you would tell at the local event. I worked with a producer from The Moth to fine tune my story and I was chosen to close out the event in Atlanta.
The story I chose was about my grandma teaching me how to cook and how I learned a special magic from her. My grandma, mom and husband attended and people lined up afterwards to greet and take photos with my grandma like the star she is! My Moth producer asked me to share this same story in New York since the theme was Ode to Joy.
At the end of the creative team retreat, I realized I had a lot of logistics to figure out. It was Tuesday and I needed to be in NYC by Thursday. My flight was supposed to leave Los Angeles to return to Atlanta Thursday. My luggage was full of LA clothes and those clothes could not withstand the New York City winter weather. These bones are not built for the type of wind that whips around those New York City buildings.
I had two choices: I could fly straight from LA to New York, give myself a Pretty Woman-esque shopping spree OR fly home to Atlanta and shop in my own closet.
It is a fantasy of mine to take advantage of quick travel plans or a lost piece of luggage by leisurely arriving in the city of my destination, pulling out some credit card that I’m not responsible for paying for and choosing a fashionable wardrobe for myself right there on the spot. This has never happened. But I’d love to see it!
This fantasy works if you’re flying into New York or Los Angeles or Atlanta, maybe even Chicago…but if my destination is in a town that only has a Dress Barn to show for it, my shopping spree dreams would be dashed.
Anyway, IN THIS AMERICA, IN THIS CLIMATE, IN THIS ECONOMY, I changed my flight and my hotel to leave LA a day early on Wednesday. I arrived home in ATL around 1am, threw my LA clothes out of the luggage, packed my Ivy Park suit and a real coat for NY. Twisted my hair. Hugged my husband and my dog. Slept long enough for it to be considered a nap and woke up the next morning to fly from ATL to NY.
Back in my performed-at-all-the-churches-and-Christian-conferences days I used to do these kinds of runs all the time. Good Friday service in California. Red eye from California to Washington DC for an Easter service. But it’s been YEARS since I’d traveled like this AND I WAS TIRED.
I landed in NYC midday and went straight to the hotel which was walking distance from The Apollo. The last time I’d been in Harlem, the late great journalist Greg Tate was giving me a walking tour of the Schomberg Center and the Lenox Lounge, and telling me all the Harlem history he could muster.
This trip, Harlem was buzzing with Black folks in town for an event at the Apollo. When I looked around it felt like home, like Atlanta, but I was quickly reminded I was in New York, not the south. The people in Harlem were pleasant. The hotel employee checking me in said, “Welcome” with a tiny smile and continued to focus on the business of checking me in. There was no, “hey baby, how you doing?” or “where you from?” or “how you feeling today?” like I would have been greeted with in the south. But the lobby was blasting R&B loud enough for hips to shake, high fives were being exchanged, and I’d seen a man on my way to the hotel attaching exercise bands to a traffic walk sign and getting the best workout of his life so it still felt kind of like home, but different.
I walked down the street and grabbed some food, came back to the hotel and practiced my story until it was time to leave for rehearsal. I met up with The Moth team and the other storytellers at The Moth Headquarters to rehearse and talk through the night. This is when I learned I’d be sharing stage with actress Marilyn Torres, Harlem Globetrotter Maxwell Pearce, renowned bassist and host of NPR’s Jazz in America Christian McBride, and Judge Sheila Calloway, all of us preparing stories for the show, and The Moth team, plus Jon Goode as our amazing host.
Marilyn shared about the journey to find a wig after being diagnosed with alopecia. Maxwell told a story about how his grandmother inspired him to take his education and his family legacy seriously. Christian shared about a time he was in the studio with Roberta Flack. Sheila told about her journey as a public defender in a broken justice system.
My experience with The Moth so far is that any given night we are sharing stage with storytellers across industries, gender, culture and experience. Even though we’ve heard the stories at rehearsal, they still feel brand new the night of the show. We don’t find out until the night of, what the order is.
This time I was selected to go first. As a former slam poet, being selected first was seen as unlucky. It meant you would be the first poem the judges would hear, likely to receive a lower score. But being first at The Moth is different. There is no competition. There are no judges. You’re telling a story in a room where the audience is in attendance to feel inspired.
So I told my grandma story. My cousin showed up just in time to catch some of my story to share with the family group chat. My grandma was so excited! My mom was so proud! My aunt and my sister complimented my stage fashion choices! My uncle and my cousin suggested brand partnerships they think I should have based on my story. I love how my family is willing to at any moment step in as my stylist, PR rep, or management!
I also met my editor and the fiction editor for Tiny Reparations for the first time in person. We talked about book things and story things and this made me so excited about the next phase for my book as I was due to turn in the second half of the manuscript a couple of weeks after the event.
After the event, we grabbed our things from the green room and did a bit of a meet and greet with people in the lobby before heading to the after party. A woman walked by and congratulated me on my story. She seemed familiar to me but I couldn't place her face. Then my brain clocks in: Mara Brock Akil just walked by and told me she enjoyed my story. MARA BROCK AKIL?! WRITER, SHOWRUNNER, PRODUCER, CREATOR OF GIRLFRIENDS, LOVE IS, THE GAME AND BEING MARY JANE, MARA BROCK AKIL?!
I have two seconds to decide if I’ll walk back up to her and share my mushy feelings or if I’ll stand still and awestruck. Riding on my temporary extroverted adrenaline I decide to move forward with my mushy feelings and catch her chatting with some friends.
“Are you Mara Brock Akil?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to take a picture?” her friend says.
“Yes!” I say and hand her my phone.
And then I get to just letting all the words come out about how important she is as a storyteller and how inspiring she is and how much her IG posts encouraged me as I was writing my book. Then she asked about my book, what it was about and the title. And I told her the title and what it was about and she and her friends made excited Black girl noises. We took a picture together!
Then it was time to leave for the after party and I sat in the car with the rest of the storytellers and The Moth team and stared off into space because I almost couldn’t believe I had just met THEEEEEE MARA BROCK AKIL.
Anyway, New York was a TIME and getting to tell a story on The Moth stage was a very pleasant surprise!
I’m listening to…August Greene’s self-titled album
I’m watching…YELLOWJACKETS!!! Why didn’t y’all tell me?!
REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA IS BACK BAAAABY!!! And I am glued to my TV screen.
I’m reading…Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal
Feeling inspired by…TURNING IN THE LAST HALF OF MY BOOK MANUSCRIPT!!! WHOOP WHOOP!
Shoutout to…TYPING IN ALL CAPS! IT’S SUCH A GREAT WAY TO CONVEY EXCITEMENT!!!
Things I’m working on…resting
yes! i love everything about this 🔥